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Topic: Excited for 2018 (Read 284 times)

We've seen some changes to PGI's MW:O ... skill tree, weapon/'mech balance passes, timeline advance, tech update, another (better) World Championships, a bunch of new 'mechs and a couple of new maps. Some awesome, some not so great, some game changing, and some not so relevant. Probably the most troubling is the reduced activity, particularly in the off hours of Oceanic Prime Time.

HBS launched the quick play and head-to-head beta tests for Battletech, which promises to bring turn-based 'mech combat into the modern era of video gaming. If you have any doubts about how good this is going to be, check out their Shadowrun series (Returns, Dragonfall, and Hong Kong, all currently on sale for super cheap). The Shadowrun gameplay is fun, stories are rich, and characters are deep. I'm really excited to see what they are going to do with Battletech.

CGL has been furiously working on streamlining the table top rules, compiling the most-used rules for 'mech-on-'mech combat into one handy rule book (currently available for download).

Mech_Con was once again awesome. Great to see and meet so many fans of the Battletech Universe.

Don't forget to log in to MW:O and play at least one game on each of your accounts between 0000 27 Dec and 1200 28 Dec (UTC times) for a sack full of free stuff. (I'm going to be travelling for about 20 of those hours, and I'm going to make it, so y'all ain't got no excuses.)

2018 is right around the corner ...

PGI is bringing Solaris 7 to MW:O (likely in Spring). While this will probably not help queue times in quick play or faction play, it should bring an interesting new dynamic to the game. Duncan Fisher is back, baby!

HBS is releasing BT (likely this Summer). I have every reason to believe that this game will be better than anything HBS has put out so far, and that has me giggling like a little kid with anticipation.

CGL is releasing two all-new Boxed Sets, the Beginners Set and The Game of Armored Combat. Each will come with new minis (GRF, WVR in the Beginners; BLR, AWS, CPLT, TDR, SHD, WVR, COM, LCT in AC) and new map sheets, all of which were on display at Mech_Con and are gorgeous. They should be published this summer. New board games seem to be all the rage with my old friends, so maybe I can get some of them interested in Battletech again.

And finally, by the end of the year PGI should be releasing Mechwarrior 5: Mercenaries. I was cautiously anxious about the game until Mech_Con. I had a chance to play one quick mission (15 minutes), and it is going to be good ... maybe amazing. Blasting tanks, VTOL, turrets, and bunkers on the approach was glorious. As I got closer to the objective, it seemed a bit too easy to take out the CPLT-K2 and LCT-1V that showed up, and as I was making my way back to my dropship, the JM6-DD that started harassing me at range was annoying, but not a problem. Granted, I was in an AS7-D. I got excited when Russ announced that Mod support would be included -- I'm seriously eager to see what you guys can come up with -- and, when support for Co-op play was announced, it nearly brought a tear to this old cynic's eye. Twice.